Ephemeral Existence
by MichaelSaniyan
Summary: Nothing lasts. Not life, not love, and certainly not ten minutes. But in spite of their fleeting nature, or perhaps because of it, they can be the most wondrous of things. - Mato/Yuu, OVA-verse, lemon, oneshot


**AN/Disclaimer:**

This is a lemon.

This is a _yuri _lemon.

This is an **underage** _yuri _lemon.

If any of these elements make you feel uncomfortable, do yourself a favor and don't read this story. Otherwise, feel free to explore this trainwreck of shameless character distortion.

* * *

><p>"Ow ow ow..." The cooling spray stung a tad, and Mato propped herself up against the lockers, resting her head against the metal while the nerve-twisting pain in her ankle turned into a chilling, milder one. The latter wasn't just preferred, but almost familiar.<p>

"Sheesh. You're playing basketball, not fighting a war." Yuu was speaking in that uncharacteristically authoritative tone of hers, and Mato lowered her head in shame. She was getting injured all too often, mostly because of her overeager nature and occasional clumsiness.

"Sorry about that, Mato." The basketball player who had been the cause of the injury said. Just about everyone else had left, and the room was quiet save for the soft _pschh _from the spray can.

"It's fine, senpai. It was just as much my fault." The upperclassman didn't look like she agreed, but she simply nodded before turing her attention to her wristwatch.

"I hate to say this, but I have to run. I trust you'll take care of our young ace, manager."

"Yessir!" Yuu saluted her with a silly grin, and went back to tending to Mato's injury. The stressed girl gave Yuu a grateful smile and then proceeded to run out of the room, her bag swinging wildly from side to side as she went.

"Take care!"

"You too-ow." This time, it was putting pressure on her hand that resulted in a throbbing protest. Maybe she should be trying to slow down a little. But Mato had to do well, since she didn't want the upperclassmen to regret letting her play with them, going so far as to call her an ace. Even in her second year, she treasured the title and their consideration, and if keeping it meant that she had to push herself every time she practiced, then she would do just that. Yuu seemed to read her thoughts, and shook her head in disappointment.

"It's just practice, Mato." The manager tutted, immediately back to her serious demeanor. "It's all well and good that you're doing your best, but..." It pained Mato to a degree, seeing her friend who was usually so peppy and optimistic being worried about her. And it wasn't like she enjoyed getting injured all the damn time, so for both their sakes, the girl nodded in agreement.

"You're right. I'll try to be more careful."

"All I ask, miss Ace." Satisfied with the answer, Yuu reverted back to her usual goofy self and ruffled her friend's hair playfully. Mato laughed and attempted to get up, conveniently forgetting that neither hand nor foot could be trusted. A pained wheezing escaped her, and she leaned back against the lockers with a frustrated sigh. "Yuu, a little help?"

"Oh no you don't. It might not be anything major, but you should still rest for a bit."

"But Yomi is waiting for us."

"She can wait ten minutes, relax. Stressing won't do you any good." Yuu put away the cooling spray and stretched her arms until she heard a pleasant crack. The manager giggled at Mato's pouty face and at how the poor thing couldn't even get up by herself. "Is she alright, by the way?"

"Hm?"

"Yomi, I mean. She's been acting a little weird lately, hasn't she? I thought since you two are such good friends, you would know..." Mato thought about it, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.

"She has been kind of...quiet, I guess. But I'm sure it's nothing, or she would've told us." The black-haired girl said assuringly, but her hesitation easily shone through the statement. Mato sighed and shook her head. This was stupid. Yomi was perfectly fine, and even if she wasn't, she could afford to wait a few measly minutes.

"She would've told you, perhaps." Yuu muttered, mostly to herself, it seemed. She had this whimsical air about her all of a sudden, like a more positive version of melancholy. "Honest, Mato...looking at the two of you, I get a little envious."

"Of what?"

"I dunno." Throwing her arms up in the air, Yuu leaned back against the wall with a sigh. Mato's uneasy feeling returned, this time not dedicated to Yomi. "You two are so close, you know. I'm not saying we're not, but..."

"Aww, Yuu, lighten up." Mato patted her friend on the head encouragingly, meeting those tawny eyes with her own. "I care about you just as much as I care about Yomi. You know that."

And Yuu gave a quick nod, because Mato was surely telling the truth. This didn't change the fact that both girls fell silent for a few minutes, letting the room fill with the void of their unspoken words. It was awfully heavy, this nonexistence. Restlessness scratched at Mato's skin, but she was afraid of making Yuu's mood worse. It was frustrating as well, because the black-haired girl had no idea what was wrong with her friend. She was envious, she'd said, but Yuu wasn't the kind of person to stress over something like that. In the end, Mato decided that she would deal with it later.

"I think this is the best I'm gonna get right now. Yuu, help?"

"Oh, right." Yuu sounded strangely absent-minded as she got on her feet. Mato, feeling like a helpless turtle on its back, held out her hand. Her friend took it, legs spread wide as not to get dragged down instead. All well and good, if Yuu had actually started pulling at any point. She didn't. She only kept a good grip on Mato's hand, unmoving.

"Um, Yuu...?"

"Jealous, e-even. You could say I'm jealous of you two." Yuu's choppy bangs fell down and hid her eyes from view. Mato still didn't understand the reason for her friend acting like this. Envy, jealousy, whatever it was, it was just so...out of character. "Because...I'm jealous b-because..."

Through this whole ordeal, Yuu was actually smiling. It was embarrassing how easily she had given up on her valiant and selfless ambition; to keep her deepest and darkest secret bottled up inside of her until the day it manifested in the form of an emotional meltdown. What a lack of integrity. Terrible, really.

"...because I want you to care about me more."

Of course, these feelings hadn't just materialized out of thin air. They had been discovered some time after Yuu and Mato had first met, then stomped on and torn apart until they should've been gone. But like stubborn weed, they had sprouted anew. Yuu was too young to truly understand the implications of this attraction, but she had figured that she possessed enough common sense to ignore it. Apparently not.

Mato slowly pulled her hand back, trying to make sense of Yuu's words. The black-haired girl now smiled too, for lack of better things to do. It was a wary smile, almost suspicious.

"Yuu, what are you saying? Is this some kind of joke?"

"Nuh-uh." The girl laughed, and it was a perfectly genuine laugh. She looked at her friend with glittering eyes, this person who was being so adorably helpless. The last thing she wanted was to hurt Mato, but she had to speak. She had to be selfish. "I want to be more than friends with you, Mato."

With that, Yuu kneeled down and approached the confused girl, careful not to touch the injured ankle. She was supposed to be making Mato better, after all. And she was fairly certain that she could make her friend feel a whole lot better, if allowed. Of course, at the slightest sign of proper resistance, she'd stop.

The turtle tried to back up, but found quite the solid locker in her way. Yuu's hands came down on either side of her, and she found herself staring into a pair of light brown eyes, happy and promising and most definitely Yuu's. Mato needed words, material to fill out the meager distance between them. But she remained silent, and felt Yuu's minty breath wash over her. This made it if possible even harder to speak, since it made her head spin, turning all logical thoughts into a hazy blur.

Yuu brought her left hand up to stroke Mato across her cheek, and the girl jumped like a frightened animal. Those blue eyes refused to meet her own, instead darting all over the place. The short girl couldn't help but chuckle, maybe because of her own nervousness more than anything else.

"Mato, relax. I'm not going to do anything if you don't want me to. So...do you?"

Mato Kuroi was not prepared for such a question, which made the whole thing very unfair. Yuu's smiling face was mere inches from her own, and her soft hand rested gently on Mato's cheek. All of this literally made the girl dizzy, but it was a desirable dizziness where all of her worries faded out into gray shades. Yuu was color, and Mato liked that color.

"Y-Yes." Blushing profusely, the corned girl nodded. Yuu blinked once in disbelief, her smile wavering.

"Really? I mean...really?"

"...I c-can't think of any reason why not."

It was an honest answer, if a bit nonsensical. Yuu accepted it with her promise still in mind before closing the distance to Mato. Was it a declaration of love? Not really, but she hadn't expected one. This was a good start, all things considered. The couple glittered a bronzy red as their lips met, and it was but a small kiss, as if to ascertain their intentions. Yuu pulled away and stared into those blue eyes once again, trying to find disgust or repulsion, but instead saw bewilderment and an underlying curiosity in the childish gaze.

Mato bit her lip and removed Yuu's hand with her own, but didn't let it go. She tried to make sense of the tornado of emotions raging inside of her, not the easiest task with the cause of it right in front of her.

"You shouldn't...we shouldn't...this is bad, Yuu."

"Don't you think I know that?" The short girl laughed, feeling her cheeks heat up as well. At least she had gotten one kiss, even if it was probably just the result of indecisiveness. "When I look at you and Yomi-"

"We're not like that!"

"I know, I know you're not. But you very well could be, Mato. And I would still just be the goofy friend." With that, Yuu sighed and got up. Or rather, she tried to. Mato still held her hands in a tight, trembling grip.

"Don't say that..."

"Mato-"

"I don't know what I want anymore! I'm so...so confused. But when we...you know...I didn't worry about any of that. I couldn't. I hate to see my friends troubled, or hurt, or sad. But I don't understand. So please...take that worry away again."

And so, Yuu was pulled back down. The two embraced each other, a minor feat considering how Mato was sitting. They kissed again, mutually and more intensely. Just as predicted, the black-haired girl's head started tumbling, distorting her doubts beyond recognition. Yuu didn't try to understand Mato's reasons, for Mato surely couldn't understand Yuu's. As long as they were both fine with that, there wasn't any problems.

The short girl slid her tongue tentatively along Mato's lower lip, asking to deepen their kiss. There were no protests, and Yuu's tongue ventured further into her friend's mouth, earning her a low moan that reverberated through her and set her mind aflame. This was a getting to be a whole lot more than ten minutes.

After at least of one those minutes had passed, the two pulled away from each other, and the thin string of saliva connecting their lips was easily torn by their gulping breaths. They looked at each other, into each other, and they didn't see any reason to stop what they were doing.

"Is this okay?" Yuu whispered, the final barrier she gave herself. Her fingers were tracing the hem of Mato's T-shirt, her request obvious. The black-haired girl's mind had been reduced to fluffy, flaring cotton, and she found herself wanting Yuu to do everything she could to prolong the inevitable end of this moment. When it came, she would have to deal with these feelings, with Yuu, and with Yomi. She didn't want that.

So Mato nodded, embarrassed yet eager. Yuu grinned widely, looking as carefree as if she'd been asked to have another piece of cake. Or course, cake couldn't beat what she would be having instead. She swiftly removed her friend's T-shirt and flung it out of existence, revealing plenty of delicious skin and a pair of budding mounds. Nothing Yuu hadn't seen before, of course, but the new possibilities made her mouth water. Metaphorically speaking. Maybe.

"H-Hey, don't look at me like that." Mato pleaded shyly, her face positively luminescent. With a spoonful of her decency still intact, she instinctively tried to cover herself up, but found that there were a pair of hands conveniently holding back her own.

"Tsk, what do you have to be ashamed of?" asked the even flatter girl with mock bitterness. "At least you have something worth hiding, unlike _some _of us."

Yuu then proceeded to kiss Mato's neck and shoulders studiously before continuing down the middle of her chest. Mato didn't mind, not with the trail of fire that was left in the diligent girl's wake. It sunk into her body and travelled down, down, keeping Yuu's pace, following the girl's swirling tongue as it painted abstract shapes across her stomach. It was incredible, but Yuu didn't pause and neither did the heat. Together, they kept sinking lower, and lower, and-

"Y-Yuu, s-stop." A handful of fingers tangled into the her hair, just to rather impolitely push her away from her treat. Yuu looked up at Mato with an almost indignant expression, making the black-haired girl feel a sting of sorely misplaced guilt.

"What's wrong?"

"I rather you didn't...g-go down there." Mato stuttered, maintaining her hold of Yuu. In a display of unconventional bashfulness, she started twirling a tawny lock around her own fingers.

"Didn't you hear me before, Mato? I'm not going to do anything you don't want me to do, so don't look so frightened. Ya know, even if I weren't allowed within ten feet of you, I would still come up with a way to make you feel good." The gallant way this was stated made Mato giggle, in spite of everything.

"And how exactly would you do that?"

"Don't underestimate me! I've read some weird stuff in my day. Where do you think I learned all this?" Yuu loved hearing Mato laugh. Her words were true, if silly, and she really would do anything and everything for her friend. Then, quite unexpectedly, Mato took Yuu's hands in her own and guided them back up to her chest.

"These...are okay." She said, even managing not to stutter. Yuu remained still for a few seconds, just in case Mato happened to change her mind. When she didn't, Yuu leaned forward and locked lips with the black-haired girl, perhaps as a reward.

Kissing was one thing. It was hot and arousing, this intimate expression of affection that turned thoughts into amber-colored syrup. Getting licked like a lollipop was one thing. It was sensual and exciting, and honestly tickled a little. But the sensation of Yuu's fingers brushing against her exposed nipples was a different story entirely, one of epic proportions that ended in a violent battle on top a frozen mountainside. Of course, Mato felt everything but frozen as her body involuntarily tensed up at the touch, pushing itself into Yuu's willing hands.

The short girl was busy biting at a most delicate earlobe when she noticed how Mato reached up to return an earlier favor. It might've not seemed like much, but the way that small tongue clumsily flicked across Yuu's neck and jawline made her quiver in pleasure.

"S-Sheesh, Mato. This is supposed to be about you, not me." She murmured into her lover's ear, and simply thinking the word "lover" made Yuu's voice even more unsteady. She knew that it was just this kind of thing that could give Mato a spurt of courageous confidence, so she remedied this by politely, yet firmly nipping the two small buds at her disposal. Mato's breath exploded into a gasp, and that was the end of any advancements from the injured girl's side. "I'll let you do more next time, okay?"

"Next ti..." Mato stared breathlessly at Yuu with clouded eyes, who just smirked mischievously. "Hah...Yuu, don't...be so mean..."

"Heh, sorry about that." The ten minutes that were nowhere near being ten minutes were almost over, and Yuu indeed decided to stop being mean. So, choosing efficiency over originality, the industrious girl latched onto a perky nipple. Mato's fingers once again snaked their way into her locks, but they didn't seem sure whether they should be pushing or pulling this time around. The rest of her body had no such dilemma, and made sure that Yuu got a mouthful of the zesty girl.

The guttural groan that this action produced from Mato made her immediately cover her mouth with her hands, muffling the embarrassing noises as her body squirmed and thrashed all on its own. Gasps and whimpers were one thing, but that the innocent girl was able to make such naughty sounds, it pleased Yuu to no end. She needed more of it, and she did have two free hands to work with. The first one was easy, and quickly went to keep the neglected part of Mato's chest company. The second was tricker, but after a brief inner compromise, Yuu let it slide down Mato's convulsing stomach and onwards. She respected her friend's wishes, but what harm was there in some innocuous rubbing?

Mato was fairly certain that she had been reduced to a drooling, moaning heap at this point, but how she looked was the least of her concerns. Aside from her upper body melting from being nibbled and sucked on, flicked and caressed, she also felt a slender spider crawling down her stomach. The heat in her abdomen was overjoyed to have a playmate, and it wasn't long after Yuu's hand had delved into her shorts that said heat started to pulsate, spilling out of her little by little.

Everything ached so wonderfully. Her entire body was one tense muscle, and Mato couldn't imagine ever feeling relaxed again. She felt light as a feather and heavy as lead, hot as the sun and cold as the tundra. There were words, these useless and superfluous items, that wandered their way up her throat and wanted out. Just like she struggled to contain her noises, so did she struggle with the words, but it was no use. All of it, noise and word alike, was released into the vibrant atmosphere.

"Y-Yuu, ah...hah...I love...love...mmf...y-you."

The shaky words were distorted by Mato's hands and muffled indiscernible. No one heard them, but they were there, floating above the couple, peering down curiously as Yuu brought her beloved friend closer and closer to the tenth and final minute.

-I-

She was tired of waiting. Yomi wasn't an impatient person, but every moment she spent knowing that Mato was hanging out with Yuu and not with her was a fine drop of acid added to the growing puddle atop her heart. It was ugly, deformed jealousy, and Yomi couldn't do anything about it. She had tried. Maybe if things had been a little different. If Yomi had ended up in the same class as Yuu and Mato, all three of them would probably have been the best of friends. But that wasn't the case, and the acid was slowly eating its way down.

It was late, the school grounds dominated by soft orange and sharp black. The windows glittered, bidding the setting sun a good evening, and Yomi found herself taking her bag and heading towards the gym hall. There was nothing wrong with meeting there instead. In fact, it was more convenient for everyone involved.

Yomi wanted to like Yuu. She was so bouncy and upbeat, the kind of person who made you happy just by looking at her. But Yomi liked Mato more, and liking both of them was impossible. Instead there was hate, and the troubled girl took what she could get. She took the disgusting hatred and turned it against Yuu. It helped, for a while. But Yomi could never actually express that hatred, and the cold feeling had eventually melted and left even more green drops falling into her.

_drip_

But Yomi had decided something. If she really valued Mato's friendship, she couldn't just stand around and watch it fade away. Even if she could only remind Mato that she was there, that she existed, Yomi would do that. A weekend was coming up, that in itself an opportunity to spend more time with her alleged best friend. She had to stop being so passive.

These were her thoughts as she walked through the hall, the sounds her steps made amplified and thrown back at her. Another thing was also thrown was at her, the counterargument that she could never find a way around: Didn't she want Mato to be happy?

The answer was yes, she did. Or rather, it was supposed to have been yes. If Yomi hadn't been a jealous and selfish person, of course it would've been a yes. But she was who she was, and a part of her wasn't okay with Mato being happy with anybody else than her. What that part and its feelings entailed, Yomi wasn't sure.

"Ah, if it isn't Takanashi-san." The one of only two other people in the entire hall called out. Yomi had no idea who she was, and found it strange that the girl even knew her name. "If you're looking for Mato, she left a while ago."

_drip_

"I was supposed to meet her."

"Is that so? Maybe they're still in the locker room then. Mato hurt herself playing, so I'd wager she's getting fixed up." Basketball player then, Yomi thought while trying to stifle that cursed voice in her head, the voice wondering what she would do if Mato had left without her. If she'd forgotten about her.

But as always, there was a reasonable explanation. Thanking politely for the information, Yomi walked towards the girls' locker room. The troubled girl felt ill all of sudden, her crude suspicions actually creating a bad taste in her mouth. Something felt horribly wrong, but all she could think about was finding Mato.

Mere steps from the locker room, Yomi heard something. A low and muffled noise, indiscernible, yet one that made her stop with her hand on the door handle. The voice in her head returned, spouting more putrid what if's. The girl silenced it, listening intently for another noise of some sort.

Sure enough, another sound came, and more after that. They were spaced out erratically, some low whimpers, some sharp exhales. Yomi was practically pressing her ear against the door at this point. A tiny river of green liquid streamed down her mind, gurgling softly as it continued to corrode her heart. It was almost through.

Driven by her fatal curiosity, Yomi pushed the handle down with utmost care. The helpful door didn't make a noise as it created a small opening for the girl to peek through. The evening light was wheedling its way into the room, and the orange light fell slanted across the scene.

_drip_

Yuu's choppy hair glowed red as the sun illuminated it. One of her tawny eyes was visible, glazed over and half shut, the rest of her face buried in Mato's chest. Furthermore, her arms ended in hands that ended in all the wrong places. Her right hand was at work caressing Mato's exposed breast, where it merely served as accompaniment to her other hand.

_drip_

Going from have wanted nothing but to lay eyes on Mato, Yomi wished herself blind. She couldn't help but to take in the sight of the helpless girl half-lying against the lockers, eyes closed in guilty pleasure. Yuu's left arm went down past Mato's stomach, ending in the hand that disappeared into the blue and white shorts. It was much busier than her right hand, orchestrating the pleasure that Mato so obviously was holding back. Her innocent face was tinted scarlet, a color that matched the entire scenario well, and her hands were desperately pressed against her mouth.

_drip_

"Y-Yuu..." A trembling, sheer voice slipped past her fingers, and the name turned into disgusting liquid that slid down Yomi's spine. The acid finally dissolved the last of the girl's defenses, and started pouring into her open heart. It hurt immensely, yet Yomi couldn't bring herself to care about it. Everything that mattered was right in front of her. Yuu suddenly disconnected herself with a wet pop, looking up with a comforting smile.

"Hey, there's no need to be ashamed. I want to hear you, Mato."

_don't you_

A pair of cloudy, blue eyes blinked twice in surprise. But Yomi saw the prominent emotion in them, the one that slowly took over until the black-haired girl let her friend gently pry away her fingers from her mouth. Yuu leaned in and gave Mato an eager kiss, and Yomi could feel her legs turn into jelly. She fell to her knees, somehow without making the tiniest sound. A brief kiss was all Yuu was allowed, as her ministrations made Mato jerk her head back. Yuu settled for kissing other body parts, helping herself to some ribs and slick stomach, all the while her left hand was working more and more frantically.

_don't you want her_

It hurt so bad. Yomi couldn't breathe anymore, much less move. To save the tiny sliver of sanity she had left, she started to erase girl no longer controlled Mato's body, but the black-haired girl's bliss continued unhindered. Her back arched the best it could in its awkward position, her hands held onto the air as if it had been solid, and Yomi witnessed it all. Mato's breath was ragged, fractured, a staccato of moans and gasps that brought her higher and higher. Yomi savored the sight and let it act as her sedative as her heart decayed. She wanted so desperately to share Mato's emotions, selfish into the last. But they weren't hers, and Yuu returned to her field of vision to remind her of that.

_don't you want her to be happy_

She couldn't decide. Yomi Takanashi could impossibly decide. So someone else did it for her. There was a particularly high-pitched gasp as Mato reached the climax of the improvised symphony. Yomi saw, had to see, and she watched as Mato's eyes went wide with ecstasy. Her entire body was a taut string of rippling electricity, crackling out into the room in a blinding discharge.

_without you isn't she happy_

Yomi could despite the dim lighting see every little abhorrent detail, down to the one hair that had stuck itself to Mato's glistening forehead and the speck of saliva flying from her open mouth. She even saw things she wasn't supposed to see, like the excited scent of the black-haired girl that was radiating into the room, like the thick mist of powerful emotions that enveloped her. Yuu faded once more, and Mato was all there was. Her body pushed to its limits, frozen in unique ravishment; that was the image that would forever be etched into Yomi's mind.

_then isn't it obvious what you should do_

The acid filled every part of Yomi's beating heart and was pumped out into her veins. It melted her down from the inside, it split her bones down the middle and tore apart her muscles, untied her tendons and boiled away her blood. The poison slithered out into her dead limbs and reanimated them, made them stronger and colder. Her unseeing eyes were still locked on Mato's blissful expression, and they didn't let go until the poison cracked them open and the world became nothing more than the metallic rattling of freezing chains.

"Yuu..." Mato Kuroi took a deep, quivering breath, and its meaning dissolved the last fragment of the person that had stopped existing for her sake.


End file.
